This relates generally to processing architectures and particularly to processing architectures adapted for parallel operations on a large amount of data.
In many processing applications, including those involving graphics and those involving complex mathematical calculations, a large number of simple operations must be done a large number of times. As a result, many of these operations can be done in parallel.
In a typical Von Neumann architecture, a processing pipeline is executed by a processor. In that pipeline, there are number of stages. Both data to be operated on and code to operate on that data, move through the pipeline in parallel. That is, both the instructions and the data move from stage to stage through the pipeline in the same way.
In image processing, there are a number of operations that are considered to be point operations. These operations are generally performed only on one pixel and only using that pixel's value. Thus, point operations can also be called one dimensional operations.
There are also operations that involve not only a pixel of interest but its immediate neighbors as well. These operations use the values of the pixel of interest and its neighbors. Thus, such image processing may be called group processing, area processing, or two-dimensional processing.